The Goa Inquisition

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Portuguese Inquisition acting in Portuguese India, and in the rest of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, to punish apostate New Christians, Jews and Muslims who converted to Catholicism, as well as their descendants suspected of practicing their ancestral religion in secret.

In Goa, the Inquisition also turned its attention to Indian converts from Hinduism or Islam, suspected to have returned to their original ways. Also, the Inquisition prosecuted non-converts who broke prohibitions against the observance of Hindu or Muslim rites or interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert non-Christians to Catholicism.

Front page of the book The History of the inquisition as it is exercised at Goa by Monsieur Dellon. (Source: openlibrary.org)

A young French physician named Charles Dellon (1650 – 1710) was incarcerated by the Goa Inquisition during his travels in Asia in 1673. When he returned to France, he wrote about his experiences of the Inquisition titled “Relation de l’Inquisition de Goa” and was published in 1687. The book became famous. It was then translated to English titled “The History of the Inquisition as it is exercised at Goa” by Daniel Horthemels and was published in 1688.

The above picture is an engraving of the Banner of the Goa Inquisition, published in Charles Dellon’s book. The banner shows Saint Dominic holding an olive branch in one hand and a sword in the other. Below him is a dog holding a burning brand in its mouth and an orb surmounted by a cross. The title above the saint’s head reads “MISERICORDIA ET JUSTITIA” (“Justice and Mercy”).

In the early phase of the Goa Inquisition, the Portuguese authorities used many ploys to convert the natives to Christianity during the Christianization of Goa. One of which was to kidnap boys from influential Hindu families before they attained puberty and enroll them in seminaries. Besides the families being influential, male children from the upper castes of Hindu society were mostly literate. Hence, the indoctrination was much easier. These young converts were then used to influence and convince their relatives and people in their community to embrace the new faith.

Some present day historians say there was no racial differentiation anywhere in the Portuguese colonies. But the truth was the Portuguese empire was a “pigmentocracy.” Characterized by a strong and tenacious colour bar, the Portuguese looked down upon the Indians as a base, cowardly and unreliable members of a “contaminated,” and hence an inferior race (raça infecta).

The Padroado Real suppressed the Goan clergy. An arrogant display of colour bar by the Portuguese went hand-in-hand with the corrupt ecclesiastical administration which was steeped in scandal. The Portuguese practiced racial discrimination in filling up higher positions in the Church hierarchy. It was blatantly flaunted in the ordination of local priests. This resulted in discontentment among the indigenous aspirants to the priesthood. It bred a feeling of protest and revolt against the Padroado Real.

Bishop Matheus de Castro, the first Indian Bishop of the Catholic Church and the first Goan to be elevated to an episcopal position was a typical example of a Goan priest suppressed by the Padroado Real. However, the Propaganda Fide which facilitated the rise of qualified local priests to the upper echelons of the ecclesiastical hierarchy encouraged him.

The seal of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Source: saints.sqpn.com)

Founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV’s bull Inscrutabili Divinae, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith) was charged with fostering the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of Catholic ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic countries. The intrinsic importance of the duties and the extraordinary extent of its authority and of the territory under its jurisdiction caused the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda Fide to be known as the “Red Pope“.

Dom Matheus de Castro Mahale

Dom Matheus de Castro was born into the influential Hindu Goud Saraswat Brahmin family named Mahale in Divar, Goa, Portuguese India (c. 1594). It has been said that he was kidnapped and sent to the Franciscan seminary at Reis-Magos, Bardez and taught the new religion.

The Padroado policy in 1621 was not to admit Indians into their ranks. Hence, the Archbishop of Goa refused Matheus ordination to the priesthood.

In 1625, a dejected Matheus proceeded to Rome along with some Carmelite priests he had befriended.

The headquarters of the Propaganda Fide in Rome. North facade on Piazza di Spagna by architect Bernini, the southwest facade seen here by Borromini. (Etching by Giuseppe Vasi, 1761)

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In Rome, Matheus met Francesco Ingoli, the dynamic secretary of the newly established Propaganda Fide. Ingoli recommended his admission to the Collegio Urbano in Rome to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest in 1630.

After his ordination, Matheus de Castro pursued studies for a doctorate in theology. His superiors were impressed by his abilities.

In 1633, he was appointed Protonotary Apostolic to the Kingdoms of Idalxa (ruled by Muhammad Adil Shah II ), Pegu and Golconda.

On November 14, 1637 Matheus de Castro was ordained a titular Bishop of Chrysopolis in Arabia. Thus, he became the first Indian Bishop of the Catholic Church and the first Goan elevated to an episcopal position. He returned to India and proceeded to work as Vicar Apostolic in the Bijapuri lands, with his headquarters at Bicholim.

Bishop Matheus de Castro was held in great esteem in the courts of the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan and other rulers of India, including those of the Kingdom of Bijapur who belonged to the Adil Shahi dynasty, which ruled Goa prior to the Portuguese. The Mohammedan rulers allowed him to erect dwelling houses and residences in their dominions for the accommodation and convenience of converts. He helped establish commercial relations between the Catholics of Goa and the peoples of those Kingdoms. He founded the Apostolic Mission of Bombay when it was a mere village in the 17th century.

Bishop Matheus de Castro vehemently opposed the Goa Inquisition. He believed that the Portuguese practice of colour bar deterred the progress of evangelisation in the sub-continent. In 1653, when he returned to India from Rome for the third time, he was determined to liberate his people from the shackles of Portuguese colonialism. He evolved a strategy to achieve this goal. He planned for a local rebellion within Goa which was to coincide with a Bijapuri invasion on land, and a simultaneous Dutch offensive from the sea. But he was betrayed and the Portuguese authorities promptly strengthened the land and riverine defenses of Goa.

Overconfident of an easy victory over the Portuguese, Mohammed Adil Shah, the ruler of Bijapur, sent a meagre force on August 12, 1654. His army was easily repulsed by the already alerted Portuguese. Adil Shah then signed a treaty with the Portuguese and the influence of Bishop Matheus de Castro at the court of Bijapur waned. He was forced to return to Rome. He spent the last years of his life in Rome.

Bishop Matheus de Castro died in 1669, an exile from his motherland that he had attempted to liberate from the colonial yoke of the Portuguese.

Like him, his nephew, Bishop Dom Thomas de Castro was in constant confrontation with the Padroado with the backing of the Propaganda Fide, and he boldly opposed the Goa Inquisition.

The conflict between the Padroado faction and the Propaganda Fide faction pitted the Catholics of Kanara against each other subsisting in a long, sullen mutual co-existence in hostility. The Padroado-Propaganda Schism sometimes lead to physical violence and insults. Those who recognized the authority of the Padroado were excommunicated by Bishop Thomas de Castro, while those who recognized the authority of the Propaganda Fide, were excommunicated by the Padroado authorities in Goa. Both groups forbade their followers from receiving sacraments from the priests of the rival group on penalty of excommunication.

Upon his arrival in Kanara, Joseph Vaz found the situation highly explosive. In a letter dated 14 September 1681, Joseph Vaz lamented:

“Many, in fact, believe that the Catholic Church is divided and that we and the Bishop’s priests are not children of the same Mother Church; and that our doctrines and our sacraments are different; and what the ones do, the others destroy. Thus, the Catholic Church is much despised and is not acceptable.”

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